Haiti Mission Trip

Two weeks ago, Jeff and Sarah Reich flew to Haiti on an immersion trip to learn about the charitable work being done there by the Haitian Timoun Foundation. Timoun is Haitian for “child”.  Sarah was a big hit with the young children in the schools we visited.  Traveling with a group of 19 from various Lutheran Churches in the U.S., we traveled to Port Au Prince and Jacmel. The poverty and problems in Haiti are immediately overwhelming and very depressing. The spirit of the people there is delightful. They are grateful and hard working. HTF supports a home for 25 crippled and handicapped children in Port Au Prince, a home for orphaned boys in Port Au Prince, a school in Jacmel, and a school in the mountains above Jacmel. They also have a scholarship program where they search for the 200 brightest students in all of Haiti and offer them a full ride for a 5 year degree if the student commits to stay in Haiti for 9 years. This is an exciting program which hopes to stem brain drain of college students who find work outside of Haiti. Haiti, more than anything, needs quality leadership. Finally, we went to the Central Plateau which is very poor. Haiti is the poorest country in the world, and the Central Plateau is a very poor region. They find the very poorest of women there, and offer them two goats, two chickens, a metal roof, a water filter, and 18 months of weekly training. That program has a 97% success rate in getting those poor families to become self-sufficient.